How to Make Healthier Hot Chocolate
| 3 min read
Nothing says settling in to enjoy winter more than making yourself a mug of hot chocolate. Whether you’re in the pro-marshmallow camp or not, there is something relaxing about stirring together chocolate and warm milk – or dairy alternatives – to create a rich and steamy cup of sweet goodness on a cold day. It’s the go-to drink for kids coming in from sledding, as an after-shoveling treat, or just a way to sip and relax by yourself.
In the U.S., when most people talk about hot chocolate, they think about a powdered mix that calls for either hot water or milk to be added and mixed. But these can taste too sweet, be gritty or have unmixed dry clumps floating in the mug. To create a better-tasting and healthier hot chocolate, it is really easy to make your own mix from just a handful of ingredients you likely already have in your kitchen. Homemade hot chocolate has fewer of the preservatives and additives found in the commercial hot cocoa mixes, so this makes the from-scratch version a healthier choice. Making it yourself also lets you control how much sugar you use, and lets you decide how deep you want the chocolate flavor to taste. Let’s look at a couple basic recipes that you can have prepped to sip in minutes.
Prep your chocolate. Most from-scratch recipes for hot cocoa call for either unsweetened cocoa powder, which you can find in a container or bag in your grocery store’s baking aisle, or chocolate pieces. These can be chocolate chips, baking chocolate bars cut into chunks, or chocolate that has been shaved or grated.
Pick your dairy alternative. Cow’s milk has long been the most popular choice when making homemade hot chocolate, but there’s been a shift in that recently, with people exploring the health and taste benefits of dairy alternatives. Some people are making the switch to plant-based products due to social or environmental reasons, but there’s also a large number of people who have lactose intolerance. About 68% of the world’s population has some form of lactose intolerance, according to U.S. health officials. Especially as people get older, they may discover they are not able to digest lactose, a type of natural sugar found in milk. Drinking milk can cause bloating, gas or other digestive issues, so these people find it much easier to pick a non-dairy alternative. Some popular choices include:
- Oat milk
- Almond, cashew or another nut milk
- Soy milk
- Rice milk
Once you decide on a milk alternative, look at the sugar content and think about how that will affect the recipe. For example, if you are using a sweetened almond milk or even a vanilla-flavored milk alternative, you likely will want to add less sugar to your recipe at first. You can always add more later once you taste it.
Serving Amount
Ingredients
1⁄4 cup granulated sugar
1⁄4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 cup whole milk or milk alternative
1⁄2 cup semisweet chocolate
1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Step 1
Whisk the ingredients together in a pan over low heat on the stove until it reaches a light boil, then cool, pour into mugs and serve.
Serving Amount
Ingredients
Instructions
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Photo credit: Getty images
